


Marinette's Abs - Alix

by OldAnimeFan



Series: Marinette's Abs [6]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Marinette's abs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 13:04:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8625475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldAnimeFan/pseuds/OldAnimeFan
Summary: Alix joins Adrien's karate lessons, to learn karate but also to teach us her style.





	

Wow! We can't seem to keep anyone in Adrien's karate class. A few weeks ago, we got Chloé, Sabrina and Alya. We still had Alya, but Chloé and Sabrina had both left, back to Mr. D'Argencourt's physical education class.

So, now it was back to Adrien, Alya and me.

Then Alix arrived.

At the start of the next lesson after Sabrina left, Alix came into the room.

"Mr. D'Argencourt said I should be here," said Alix to Adrien. "Actually, it was Chloé who started it."

Of course! Chloé!

"In our physical education class, she had been bragging that she had been training privately with Adrien in karate, and that was why he wasn't there in the class anymore, and that no one should mess with her, since she was a karate expert now."

Yes, that's just like Chloé, exaggerating a situation, then turning it around in her favor.

"Of course, I doubted that story, but it did give me the idea. I spoke with Mr. D'Argencourt, and found that indeed you were holding karate classes. I asked him if I could join too. He said I should just show to up here instead of in his class.

"So, I'm here to learn karate. Can you teach me?"

This would be interesting. Alix was short and kind of thin, the shortest girl in the class, and probably the shortest student in the whole school. But I knew from the way she skated around the Paris streets on her rollerblades that she was athletic and physically active, definitely more so than Marinette before Ladybug. And she never backed down, no matter who she was confronting, even if they were much larger than she was. She never started a fight, but she didn't run from one either. I had never seen her fight, but she never did anything that would have led to a fight, at least not that I had seen.

Alix came prepared for a fight. She had on what looked like a karate Gi, like Alya's and Adrien's, (and like the one I used to have), but with a white belt. The Gi looked well worn (to my seamstress' eyes), but slightly different than Alya's. Out of place, the belt looked new.

"Welcome to our karate class," Adrien said. "As I've done with everyone, I need to ask you about your experience. Have you had any karate training? Of any kind? Have you had any other martial arts training? How experienced are you?"

"I've never done any karate at all, and that's why I'm here. I want to learn," said Alix. "But I've had a little more than a little martial arts experience."

"OK," said Adrien. "Let's do some sparring so I can gauge your level."

"Sure," said Alix, "but let's do it full contact."

"Are you sure? This is only practice, you realize."

"Yes, full contact," and she set herself in a stance I didn't recognize. It was more as if she were going to grab Adrien, instead of fight him.

Adrien also went into his stance, but it was the karate one I had seen and used many times before.

Adrien made the first move, though I didn't see Alix even try to go first. He threw a punch at her, full force. I knew, because I had seen that punch before, coming at me, full force. And a lot of the time, it had impacted on me, full force, though I was getting better at blocking it by now. Alix blocked it, or more accurately, brushed it to one side. The block was slightly unusual in that it was not the one that Adrien had taught me for that punch. But it was just as effective, more so, since she seemed not to have moved very much to throw it. She had used just about the minimum movement to block it, and thus the minimum amount of energy. I didn't know what kind of style she was using, but I could easily see her wearing out her opponent by just blocking, as he expended all his energy in attacking.

Adrien snapped back to the guard position, but he needn't have, I thought. Alix hadn't even tried to attack. She just stepped back to her own initial stance, the same as she had started in.

Adrien attacked again. He raised his right fist a little and shifted his weight a little to the left. I knew what was coming, as I had been on the other side of that manoeuvre quite too often. He bent back a little and snapped a kick directly at her body (though due to her diminutive stature, he had to aim his kick a lot lower to hit her body then he did when attacking me).

Alix snapped out of the way of the kick, but too late. It impacted her body, throwing her backward to the mats. But instead of landing flat on her back, she did... something... so fast I didn't really see what, and rolled back onto her feet, facing Adrien again. She went into her stance again for a couple seconds, then gingerly laid one hand on her stomach, right where the kick had landed. But she kept the other hand in her stance, obviously prepared for another attack.

After a couple more seconds, with no new attack from Adrien, she said, "You... You didn't follow up!

"You didn't attack me when I was on the mat. And you didn't attack me after I recovered. You know, you should have. It would have been the best opportunity.

"Now just try that kick again."

Well, I did say that Alix was tough, didn't I?

By now, Alix seemed to have recovered. She was back in her stance, waiting for Adrien to attack. But of course, Adrien tried another punch instead of a kick. And Alix was ready for that one, deflecting it just as she had the first punch.

A few attacks later, Adrien kicked her again, with the same type of kick as the first one, but aiming a little higher, in her upper abs. This time, as his kick started, Alix stepped to the side, and his kick went right by her, just grazing her body. She grabbed his pants leg and rotating around, pulled his leg tight into her. And as she completed her rotation, she kicked at his other foot, sending him flying to the mat on his back. She followed him down, keeping a tight hold on his pants leg, pinning his body to the mat.

Adrien tried to struggle free, but she had a tight hold on him, enough so that all he could do was wriggle a little. Eventually, knowing he wasn't getting out of that hold any time soon, he tapped out, signifying he had lost that round.

The sparring went on for several more minutes. Alix was able to pin Adrien every time. He wasn't even able to land another punch or kick on her. And every time he tried, she used his momentum against him, and took him to the mats again.

"That's enough," Adrien said, getting up for the seventh (or maybe eighth) time. "I see you're quite skilled in judo. But why are you wearing a white belt?"

"Actually," Alix replied, "I'm well above that grade in judo. But since I'm here to learn karate, for the first time, I'm only a white belt here.

"Ever since I was young, I was, shall we say..."

"...petite?" said Adrien.

"...short?" I said.

"...a midget?" said Alya.

"...an elf?"

"...a hobbit?"

"...a dwarf?"

"...a... a..."

"Enough!" said Alix.

"What I meant to say, was I was picked on."

"Bullied?"

"..."

"Enough! Again!

"So I learned..."

"Judo?" said Adrien.

"No, actually I learned street fighting. Judo came later.

"Judo was best for me, as it doesn't rely on brute strength, only skill. Once I trained sufficiently, I could stop anyone's attack. And I found that I gained confidence in myself too. So, because I could win any fight, I found that no one picked on me anymore. And when you know you can always win a fight, you don't have to prove it to anyone, so you don't even start one yourself."

Then we got down to business. Adrien told me to work with Alix, showing her all the beginner stuff I had been teaching everyone else, and he worked with Alya again. But it wasn't for the reason you would think. Yes, Alix was more skilled than Adrien in judo, but she was still just as inexperienced in karate as Sabrina or even Chloé. So, I worked with Alix, teaching her the basics, while he continued to work with Alya, giving her the stronger competition and training she needed.

By the end of the lesson, Alix had learned most of the moves I knew, some of which took me weeks to master. I would show her how to throw a particular punch or kick, she would repeat it a few times, we would practice the most effective counter or block to that punch or kick, then we would go on to the next punch or kick. Her high level of judo skill (or maybe her street fighting skills, I was never sure), let her learn karate at a rate well beyond even my Ladybug-enhanced rate.

The next day, we started right in with sparring. She was very good. Even though she had only that one lesson so far, she was very good at karate. Yes, I was still much better than she was at sparring. But when one of my punches or kicks got through to her, she would stop the fight and demand, (well not exactly demand), for me to repeat it, and show her how to counter it or throw it herself. She was still not as good as I was, as I had been sparring long enough that my muscle memory would automatically take over when I saw a particular punch coming in, or saw a particular opening present itself. I figured it would take her a while, maybe a month, before she was up to Adrien's and my level.

"Alix," I said, "could you teach me judo, at least a little? I can do all the long-ranged attacks and defenses of karate, but there may be times when I may be in close-combat, where kicks and maybe even punches don't work."

I realized that was the wrong way to put it even before I was done saying it. Of course, there would never be any such times for Marinette. But I had been thinking about Ladybug and the tremendous assortment of Akumatized villains she was going up against. And there was also the fact that almost all the villains she was fighting were just ordinary people and students. I didn't really want to hurt them. So if she could just lock them up with a joint lock, or throw them to the ground and hold them there while she took their Akumatized object and destroyed it, that would be much better than punching or kicking them with karate or even with Alya's moves.

"Sure," Alix said. "Let's talk it over with Adrien, in case they want to be included in the training."

Adrien agreed it would be a pretty good idea to learn as many different techniques as possible, so we could at least defend against them.

So the next lesson, we went straight into learning judo from Alix, starting out with learning how to fall and roll properly, even Adrien. He still preferred karate, but was willing to learn new forms. And Alya and I both got a very good introductory course in judo. I made sure that we concentrated on locks and grappling holds, so I could use them as Ladybug.

Ladybug.

That's when I learned that Ladybug would have a difficult time with judo, much more so than with karate.

On the weekend after my first judo training, I transformed and went out to the Paris rooftops to practice my judo, solo, as I had with karate and Alya's moves. But it wasn't until I actually got out to my practice area, a warehouse area well out of sight of any prying eyes, that I realized it would be difficult, or maybe even impossible. I was just getting ready to practice one of my judo throws when I realized...who was I going to throw? Who was I going to place a joint lock on? Yes, I could learn how to land on the hard Paris rooftops, and I could roll up to my feet from a fall. I could learn those by myself. But who was there for me to actually fight with? Who could I practice on? In karate, you could always practice kicks and punches against any stationary object, even a chimney on a rooftop. But in judo, you needed to practice on someone. You couldn't just throw the nearest chimney to the floor.

So I did the best I could, trying to remember the moves Alix taught us, and then executing them as if there were an opponent just in front of me who I could grapple with. It worked, but only a little. I would have to get most of my training in the gym with Alix, and as Marinette. And that would mean that Ladybug wouldn't progress in judo anywhere near as fast as she had in karate, and thus neither would Marinette.

The next lesson, both Alya and I worked with Alix on judo. But surprisingly, Alya was doing much worse than I was. And for some reason, I was doing much better against both of them. I could attribute some of that to Ladybug's practice, but Alya and Alix were so much better than Marinette, that there had to be another answer. Adrien was the one who discovered it. In an awkward way for him.

At the end of the lesson, Adrien called us over. Turning to Alix and Alya, Adrien said, "Girls, next lesson, I want you to take off your Gi tops."

After a couple seconds of stunned silence, Alix said, "What was that!"

Alya said, "What do you want us to do!"

And I said, "Adrien!"

"Yes," he continued. "I want you to...

"Wait! That's not what I meant!" he said, turning a bright red. "What I meant... What I want is... What... What... What..."

Finally, he took a deep breath and said, "What I meant to say was, when you come to the next lesson, wear your regular gym tops instead of your Gi tops.

"Alix, judo involves a lot of grappling, as you know. Almost always, you grasp your opponent by the loose cloth of his Gi. Well, with Marinette, with her skin-tight outfit, there is no loose cloth to grasp. Thus, you two are at a disadvantage. So next time, everyone will have the same, closer-fitting outfits, and thus the same handicap.

"Alix, but this means you're going to have to come up with moves to train us in that don't rely on grabbing loose clothing. So we all will get training more consistent with real world situations."

It worked, darn it!

The next judo lesson, Alix and Alya were back to their relative skill levels, and I was back to mine, at the bottom of the pile, quite often literally.

Adrien, Alya and I learned judo moves over the next couple weeks. Sometimes, Adrien would pull Alya aside and start sparring with her. I could see that she was incorporating judo moves into her style too, making it that much more difficult for Adrien to win. But that was for the best, as Alya was well beyond my level, and Alix was still training in karate. When Alya and Adrien were sparring, Alix and I would trade training styles, karate and judo.

In the last lesson of the week, Alix stopped me during my judo training. "I never did tell you about my street fighting style, did I?" said Alix.

I shook my head.

"There's a reason, too. In street fighting, there is no style.

"In street fighting, you just start punching and kicking as fast and as hard as you can. There isn't really any art to it, you just punch at whatever's closest that you can get to, and you keep punching, until you win or the other guy loses. That's really all there is to it.

"You know, I was always petite, short, a dwarf, and whatever. So for me, that meant I would just hunker down, keeping my head down, and punch the other guy in the gut, as hard and as many times as I could. And hopefully, he wouldn't be able to throw his punches as low as my head, and I could wear him out. Another thing you could try, though it doesn't work too good for me, is to grab him around his neck and pull him in really close to you. Then, keep hammering his body with your knees, or sometimes your fists, again as hard and as fast as you can. But of course, with my height, or lack of height I should say, I wasn't that good at that second one.

"Marinette, I think you could use street fighting too, what with your abs. You could just trade punches, kicks or knees with the other guy to his gut, and you could shrug off his punches to your gut. Let me show you," and she just started in punching me in the abs.

It was just like those times with Sabrina. And I returned my own punches to her, hard karate punches, but as fast as I could.

It was different than karate. In karate you sort of danced around each other (well, not like Alya's dancing-techniques, but you get what I mean), then when you see an opening, you attack with a punch or kick, or sometimes a combination of punches and kicks. Then you back off and look for another opportunity. But what we did was just keep up attacking, even though your opponent was attacking also. You just had to find an opening, a small one was good enough, then drive a fist into that opening, hopefully doing more damage to your opponent than they were doing to you.

I told you it always hurt when someone punches you in the abs. Well, it really hurt with Alix, punching my abs as hard as she could, continuously. But for some reason, it didn't hurt as much when I was able to return those punches back to her, punching her abs continuously. It isn't logical, but it was true.

So for the next few minutes, we punched each other in the abs, as hard as we could, as fast as we could. It wasn't until several minutes had gone by, when we were both starting to fade from the tough training we were taking, that I noticed that both Alya and Adrien were staring at us.

When we both finally stopped, panting from the exertion, I turned to Adrien and said, "I'm learning street fighting! We're punching each other in the gut!"

Adrien looked at me, then at Alix, then just shook his head slowly and walked to the other side of the room, burying his head in his hands and shaking it slowly from side to side. All three of us broke out in a round of laughter that lasted the rest of the lesson. When the laughter would die down, one of us would put our face in our hands, and we would start up again.

The next session, we were back to serious training. At the end of that session, Adrien approached me.

"Marinette, my father wants to talk with you. Are you available tomorrow, just after school?"

I stuttered and stammered, but nodded yes.

I had a lot to think about after that lesson. So, I was late for the next class. And as usual, I tripped on the stairs coming into the class. Chloé started laughing at me and was just about to say something, probably highly insulting, when I rolled out of the fall using a judo roll, without losing any momentum, and was back on my feet in less than a second, sprinting for my desk, and sitting down just as the bell rang.

Adrien just smiled.

Adrien smiled!

He smiled...at me!

"Eeeeeeee!"


End file.
